Joeri Van den Bergh, Director of InSites Consulting ON SNEAKERS, which is the research agency’s children and youth department, attended the MRS Youth Research 2009 conference in London. Even though Joeri caught an unspeakably early Eurostar train that morning, there were three contributions that managed to keep him awake.
The conference was given the theme “Get Closer, Engage and Communicate” and the setting – a few round tables – was considerably more intimate than at many other conferences, although that was probably due to the poor turnout.
Douglas Dunn, Managing Director at Tuned In Research, a recently established agency focusing on young people and electronic sectors, immediately dispelled a number of popular myths about youngsters:
- “Young people want everything for free”:
This is definitely true on the internet, says Dunn, but in the real world, people pay for things. Young people still spend a lot of money on experiences and activities, such as adventure trips or beach and party holidays. Other examples are material things that are an integrated part of their looks (clothing) or allow physical connections with their peers (festivals and concerts). Young people also put their hands in their pockets for “technology enablers” (MP3 players, mobile phones, games consoles, …) that allow them to lead their online lives.
- “It is very difficult for brands to communicate with young people”:
According to Douglas Dunn, advertisers have to make an extra effort in order to connect with the young people of today, but it is possible. Young people become ‘friends’ in their social network with the brands that appeal to them. If you offer innovative brand experiences as an advertiser, you get commitment and therefore loyalty in exchange. Dunn mentions the example of Orange Rockcorps, an initiative launched by telecom provider Orange. It is currently only operational in London, but there are plans for a further rollout following its success. In exchange for 4 hours of community service, youngsters receive an Orange SIM card and some other goodies and they are also invited to music events that are exclusive to Rockcorps participants. As well as offering new experiences, presenting content that appeals to youngsters is also very important. Gilette M3 Power developed an online jet ski game that was very much appreciated by young people in the UK.
Pimm’s, a drinks brand belonging to the Diageo group, created “It’s Sunshine O’Clock”, a website where youngsters can enter a postcode to find out local pubs with a beer garden and an estimate of the number of hours of sunshine you can enjoy there on that particular day.
Mars was looking for a co-presenter for the Mars Planet MySpace Radio, a weekly radio hour on MySpace with DJ and TV presenter Alex Zane. Mars recognises the Millenials’ need to achieve something in life, even if it is just their fifteen minutes of fame. O2, the mobile phone brand, unleashed a battle for the UK’s Favourite University on Facebook, fostering the team spirit of young people studying at the same university. It is still possible to get the commitment of the current generation of young people, Dunn concluded, as long as brands respond to the needs and drives of this generation and present relevant activities. To the ‘me, myself & I’ generation, relevance has everything to do with finding common ground with their personal and direct environment.
Nadia Zohhadi, Global & European CMI Manager for the Axe/Lynx brand at Unilever, made a nice presentation on the brand’s co-creation strategy. Each year, Axe/Lynx markets a new variant. Last summer, they brought together 16 leading edge and creative students, brand managers, CMI managers and creative teams from the agencies and Fragrance Houses in Alicante in order to generate new ideas and arrive at some new products for Axe/Lynx. The students received advance training from the Fragrance House on how scents work and then put their creativity to work in several rounds. Under the slogan “A fresh start in a rotten world”, they created the foundation for the new Axe variant for 2010. After an online validation of the concept by a larger group of influencers, it was decided what Axe/Lynx will be marketing next year in a co-creation process of only 8 weeks. The students also thought of the below-the-line campaign ideas for the launch of the Axe Dark Temptation, better known as the chocolate variant. That is how “chocolate man” emerged as the clear leading hero of the campaign. The students contributed several activation ideas, which the brand is currently rolling out in Europe.
Nick Gadsby, Associate Director at Lawes Consulting, brand advisors specialised in semiotics and cultural analysis, presented a story on the social gaming phenomenon. Social gaming refers to games that young people play together (or against each other). The generic term includes many different types of games:
- MMOGs, such as World of Warcraft (with no less than 11.5 million users, who on average game 17 hours a week), Runescape, Age of Conan, LOTR Online, but also Habbo and Club Penguin
- FPS, such as Halo 3, Counter-Strike, Left 4 Dead,
- Family games, including the very popular Wii range,
- Music games, with titles such as Rock Band, Sing Star and Guitar Hero, and
- Sports games, such as Fifa 09 and Pro Evolution Soccer 2009.
According to Gadsby, the main motive of gamers is simply escapism. In this context it is important for brands to know that the daily amount of attention paid by solo gamers to a game falls fairly rapidly and drastically following the game’s purchase. For a very extensive game such as GTA4, gamers’ attention falls impressively only 3 months after purchasing it. However, for social games, such as Call of Duty IV – which is essentially much more superficial as far as game options are concerned – gamers’ interest fades much less rapidly, even after 6 months. So social escapism commits gamers for longer, so they stay interested more intensely for longer. Like Dunn before him, Nick Gadsby reiterates that a high commitment level is a basic condition for word-of-mouth communication. Research shows that 16 to 19-year-olds are the most important gamers population as well as the largest social gamers group.
Then Gadsby asked the audience to complete the Bartle Test. The Bartle Test was developed by Dr. Richard Bartle, who co-invented the Massively Multiplayer Online Game in 1978, known at the time as MUD. He developed the test to classify players of online multiplayer games according to playing style, motivations and objectives. I turned out to predominantly match the Explorer profile, like most of the other people in the room, which was crammed with researchers. This immediately proved that the Bartle test works, because Explorers are gamers who get a kick out of knowledge and learning and always want to discover new and interesting things. They go for games with much content and adventure. I failed to mention that I was only 1 point away from matching the Killer Gamer profile, because as a Belgian, I didn’t exactly want to be associated with crèche killer Kim De Gelder abroad. Then Nadia Zohhadi raised her hand and asked Gadsby whether it is possible to be two profile types at the same time: she was an Explorer as well as a Killer… For Killers, games can be compared to a sport: the other gamers are their prey. They obviously want to make the game hard for the other players and kill them. Explorers and Killers are the two most important groups of social gamers according to Bartle’s classification. They make up 75% of the population. Achievers and Socialisers roughly contribute equally to make up the remaining 25% of the group. Achievers want to get most points and earn the best items, so they tend to spend many hours gaming. To them, a game stands for success and reputation. Top scores are therefore extremely important. In the lifestyle segmentation we created for MTV Networks Netherlands they can be recognised as “Nerds”. Socialisers simply see gaming as a form of entertainment similar to watching television, listening to music or going to the cinema. To them it is all about hanging out together with friends, chatting and interacting with others. The basic classification can be represented in the following diagram:
As a brand, Gadsby says, you mainly have to understand the gamers and their world and then respond to it. As an example of how not to go about it, Gadsby mentioned the BBC making a Robin Hood character appear in World of Warcraft for the video release of Robin Hood. Coca Cola, however, released World of Warcraft packaging in China, which it supported with POS material making up a real life copy of the MMORPG access gate. Gadsby also provided an excellent example of product placement: Philips integrated an exact copy of the 1940s Philips factory as a realistic, historic location in Brothers in Arms – Hell’s Highway, which is set in World War II. So the same rule also applies here: authenticity for young people is the key to success.
If we take a look at the results of our tweet/question of the day (#TwitterStudyQ4), we get the following picture:
